Integrated circuits are generally comprised of a plurality of active devices and passive devices that are manufactured from a semiconductor substrate. Active devices include transistors and diodes, whereas passive devices include resistors and capacitors. The manufacture of integrated circuits involves many processing steps including oxidation, material deposition, photolithography, etching, ion implantation, silicide formation, and metal interconnect formation. For example, a semiconductor device such as a transistor may be manufactured by forming a gate dielectric layer on a semiconductor substrate and forming a polysilicon layer on the gate dielectric layer. A layer of photoresist is patterned on the polysilicon layer to leave portions of the polysilicon layer exposed. The exposed portions of the polysilicon layer are anisotropically etched to form gate structures and to expose portions of the gate dielectric material adjacent the gate structure. The remaining portions of the photoresist are removed and a layer of dielectric material is formed over the gate structure and the gate dielectric material. The gate dielectric material is anisotropically etched to form spacers adjacent the sides of the gate structure. An impurity material is implanted into the portions of the semiconductor substrate adjacent the spacers to form doped regions. The impurity material is also implanted into the polysilicon portion of the gate structure. A layer of dielectric material is formed over the gate structure and the exposed portions of the semiconductor substrate. Silicide is formed from the gate structure and from the doped regions. An etch stop layer is formed over the gate structure and the silicide. A layer of dielectric material may be formed over the etch stop layer. Optionally, another etch stop layer may be formed over the dielectric layer and another layer of dielectric material may be formed over the second etch stop layer. The etch stop layers are typically formed from dielectric materials. Electrical interconnects may be formed from the layers of dielectric material and from the etch stop layers using for example a single damascene process or a dual damascene process. The electrical interconnects electrically couple semiconductor devices to each other.
Thus, dielectric materials serve a variety of functions during the manufacture of integrated circuits as well as in the integrated circuits themselves. For example, they act as etch masks, implant masks, etch stop layers, protective masks, spacers, strain inducement structures, etc. In addition, they provide electrical isolation between different electrically conductive devices in the integrated circuits. A drawback with using dielectric materials in the formation of semiconductor devices is that processing steps designed to etch one of the dielectric layers may etch through other dielectric layers causing electrical shorts between semiconductor devices or within semiconductor devices.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have an integrated circuit and a method for manufacturing the integrated circuit that inhibits electrical shorting of semiconductor devices and that is compatible with a variety of semiconductor processes. It would be of further advantage for the integrated circuit to be cost efficient and for the method to be cost and time efficient.